Callaway loses patent fight over Pro V1 ball

The parent company of Titleist said it has won a long-running patent battle with Carlsbad-based Callaway Golf over the popular Pro V1 golf ball.

Acushnet Co, the golf business of Fortune Brands, said a U.S. District Judge in Delaware on Thursday denied Callaway’s request for a new trial and officially closed the five-year-old case.

Callaway sued Acushnet, claiming that the Pro V1 violated four Callaway patents. It won a partial victory initially, and Bloomberg News calculated that it could have received up to $246 million from past sales of Pro V1 balls.

But Acushnet appealed, and a jury ruled last year that the four patents were invalid because they were not new. Callaway fought the ruling but was ultimately unsuccessful.

“Today’s positive ruling substantiates what our contention has been throughout this process, that the patents in question were invalid and should never have been issued,” said Joe Nauman, corporate legal counsel for Acushnet.

The Pro V1 ranks as the most popular high-performance ball in golf. Acushnet noted that it introduced the Pro V1 ball to

professional players in 2000, before the patents in question were issued in 2001 and 2003.

Callaway acquired the disputed ball patents when it purchased the Top Flite golf ball business from a bankrupt Spalding in 2003.

In a statement, Callaway said it’s not giving up. It plans to challenge the lower court’s ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“We are disappointed with the court’s decision, especially in light of our victory in the first trial and Acushnet’s admitted infringement of our patents,” the company said in a statement.”

The golf ball patent battle between the two firms is being fought on other fronts. In 2009, Callaway filed a second lawsuit against Acushnet for patent infringement related to different patents. It continues to pursue that case.